“My father was murdered two days ago… he had no money, all he had was his children”:

A murdered realtor/pensioner’s daughter writes us: SEPT 3 2010 - “My Father, Floris Kruger, was murdered two days ago on the 1st September 2010 in the St Albans area, Eastern Cape. They stabbed him several times in the chest – torture to get information concerning his bank accounts etc. They tied him by his feet and took him to the bushes using his car (which they stole) -- where they shot him between the eyes and left him there. He was found on the 2nd September 2010. My dad had no money, he had nothing worth stealing in his house, all he had was his children. He was 60 years old. I loved him very much and I miss him. JUSTICE WILL BE DONE.”

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2010/09/03 PORT ELIZABETH. Three black men were arrested for the execution-style murder of Afrikaner smallholder Floris Johannes Kruger, 60, whose body was found dumped in the bushes behind Port Elizabeth’s St Albans Prison on Wednesday afternoon. He was beaten so badly that all his ribs were broken. He was shot with his own 6.35mm pistol. He was a realtor, specialising in selling farms and smallholdings, his daughter says.

Severely beaten:

They have identified the victim as Floris Johannes Kruger, 60, a realtor living by himself on a smallholding in Le Marseilles Road, Greenbushes. Kruger’s body was found on the side of the road by workers fixing a farm fence at about 11am. Kruger was severely beaten and shot twice in the head at close range with a cloth over his head. A police officer close to the investigation said the men suspected of being involved with the murder had been arrested in a vehicle while allegedly trying to flee Port Elizabeth late yesterday afternoon.

“We received information which led us to a road near the Fairview racecourse, where we found three of the five men believed to have been involved with the murder,” the officer said. “We searched them and found various stolen goods linking them to the murder. We are still searching for two other accomplices.” Police suspect the three Xhosa males were trying to flee to their homes in Transkei.

Police spokesman Warrant Officer Alwin Labans said detectives suspected Kruger had been the victim of a “botched house robbery: i appears he was attacked by five people inside his house early on Wednesday.” Evidence suggested that the men had beaten and stabbed Kruger nine times in an attempt to get his bank card pin code. Labans said R500 had been withdrawn on Wednesday night from an Absa ATM in Kabega Park.

He said the post-mortem report showed that Kruger had been beaten so badly that all his ribs were broken. “We presume they beat and stabbed him until he gave up his bank details,” he said. “From what we can see, two firearms were also stolen from his house.”

Ballistic tests also showed that Kruger had been shot with his own firearm – a 6.35mm pistol. “Once they had what they wanted, we believe they put a cloth over his face, tied him up and loaded him into his car, a silver VW Polo,” Labans said. “We presume he was still alive as there were no signs that he had been shot in or around the house.” Kruger was a neighbour of Jack Bergman, 86, who was brutally beaten by five robbers inside his home in July 2009 - and died in hospital days later.The three men are due to appear in court on Monday. http://www.theherald.co.za/article.aspx?id=601961

Nelspruit. – 64-year-old Elizabeth Dorey was found in her delapidated farm house with her hands tied behind her back, a rag stuffed into her mouth – and strangled with an electrical cord. And what was her ‘crime”? She had refused to move from the Hilltop-smallholding because her late parents’ ashes were scattered there: she was attacked on her smallholing three times over the past seven years. Colonel Gerrie Agenbag, SAPS detectives-chief in Nelspruit, who knew her well because he had also investigated the previous attacks, said “she was a fragile, defenceless lady who also was very badly assaulted by her attackers before she was strangled”. A worker raised the alarm with neighbours when he showed up for work at 7am and noticed that an entire window had been taken out. He contacted the neighbours 300m away from the homestead – and the neighbours went with him to investigate, and discovered her body in the hallway. Agenbag ‘s contact telephone number is 013 759 1108. Report by Buks Viljoen, Beeld. http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Vrou-wou-nie-hoewe-los-toe-word-sy-vermoor-20100902

SAPS Capt Kevein Marallich, of the crime-intelligence unit in Eshowe, was shot dead and fiancee Cathy Potgieter was severely assaulted while the off-duty cop was fishing at a rural dam near Nyoni, 30km north of Stanger on the KwaZulu-Natal north coast on Sunday-afternoon.

Pietermaritzburg – Aug 29 2010 – The Witness reports that a wildlife lodge supervisor’s throat was cut and her policeman husband was stabbed with the same knife at their game-reserve homestead at Msinsi Game Reserve, Albert Falls Dam, in the early hours of Saturday.

Mrs Erica Croeser, 32, had her throat slit with a knife that was also used to stab her 34-year-old husband, Constable Morné Croeser of the SAPS dog unit, in the stomach . When paramedics arrived they found the knife still lodged in his stomach.

The scene was described as “very, very gory” and the 300 fishermen-guests who were at the lodge for the annual bass-fishing tournament were shocked and horrified. Erica had been working at Albert Falls as a tourism assistant for 10 years. It is believed that the couple had just arrived home when they were attacked. A source said that while Morné parked the car, Erica went to open the front door of their house. Two armed men were waiting in ambush and pounced on her. The couple’s two young daughters, aged 6 and 10, were staying with their grandmother at the time of the attack.

Distraught neighbour Hlekisile Nkala told The Witness that she heard a gunshot just after 02:00, and about 10 minutes later she heard a male voice screaming for help. She quickly woke her husband and called the police. An employee at the reserve said the incident had shocked the more than 300 participants staying there for the annual bass fishing tournament, which started on Friday. “The customers have also expressed shock and fear over the gruesome murder. They keep asking if the murder really happened and if it was that gruesome,” said an employee. “Since the murder attack we have increased the number of security guards from two to four. We are also looking at more ways of increasing the security,” said Msinsi Holdings marketing manager Ray Naguran.

SAPS spokeswoman Joey Jeevan said Morné Croeser was in a serious but stable condition in hospital on Sunday. She said when paramedics arrived at the scene with police, the knife used to stab him was still lodged in his abdomen. “Paramedics removed the knife and put up a drip and treated him before he was taken to hospital.” Jeevan said no arrests had been made, adding that nothing seemed to be stolen. “At this stage police believe that this is linked to a labour dispute. She was a supervisor, and responsible for hiring and firing.” Mrs Croeser’s mother Francoisana Schafer said the family are coping with “the sad story”, but was unable to comment any further. - Stephanie Saville and Bongani Hans, The Witness http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Womans-throat-slit-in-nature-reserve-20100829http://www.msinsi.co.za/albert-falls-dam.php

2010-08-30 Jana van der Merwe and Lynda Greyling report in Volksblad newspaper that a well-known Afrikaner politician, Dirk Odendaal, 80, was attacked with his wife Sophia, 70 upon their return from church to their farm Verdun near Meets, Bethlehem, Free State. Mr Odendaal was an ex-member of the provincial council (MPC) for Harrismith and ex-director of the Drakensberg Cooperative and of Sentraboer. He also was the chairman of the Afrikaans cultural organisation Rapportryers in Bethlehem.

Both were ambushed by three black men with balaclavas just outside their homestead at noon. Mr Odendaal was viciously assaulted with a tyre-iron, his wife was beaten black and blue and her nose was broken. The attackers tore her earrings from her earlobes. Their daughter Mrs Rianza van Huyssteen said the man first first her mother to open the house. “One beat her through the face with a loaf of bread they’d bought enroute from the church and she fell over a wall while a knife was held at her throat. Mr Odendaal rushed in when he heard her screams and was beaten by the tyre-iron. He suffered serious leg injuries. The men forced him to open their registered gun-safe and stole a 6.45 pistol. There was no money in the safe. However they beat up the elderly politician until he gave them all the money the couple could find in the house, about R6,000. The couple then was locked into the large cooling-room outside the homestead and fled with the couple’s Bantam bakkie.

The term "genocide" was coined by legal scholar Raphael Lemkin in 1943, writing:

'Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actionsaiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.

The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of personal security, liberty, health, dignity and lives of the members of such groups... '